This disclosure relates to bird feeders for feeding wild birds. Such bird feeders are usually hung from a hook or tree limb. The particular type of wild bird feeder discussed herein hangs with the use of a thin but strong cable which has a loop at one end and is attached at the other end to the bird feeder itself.
One such prior feeder has a feed reservoir and a lid which rests on top of the reservoir. The lid can be removed from the reservoir for refilling the reservoir with bird feed, usually seeds. In one particular instance this lid has a hole through the center and a finial attached to this hole. The finial has a hole through which the cable passes. The finial has a passage or barrel at right angles to the cable that holds a spring-biased plunger. The end of the plunger has a hole and the cable passes through the hole. The plunger's hole is normally forced by the biasing spring against and frictionally binds the cable against the finial. The plunger must be depressed to relieve this binding so that the lid can be slid along the cable toward and away from the feed reservoir.
In another prior bird feeding device, a bolt threads against the cable passing through a vertical hole in the lid. The bolt presses against the cable to lock the lid in position along the cable.
Both of these prior solution require a substantial manual dexterity to depress the plunger or to operate the laterally mounted bolt.
Accordingly it is an object of the disclosed device to provide a simple, dependable mechanism that can be easily operated with gloved hands that permits the lid of the bird feeder to be held down against the feed reservoir, or to be slid upwardly on the cable and thus out of the way to permit feed within the reservoir to be replenished.
It is another object to be invented to provide a knob and lid combination that grips the cable but that can be slid along the cable without manipulation of a bolt or plunger.